BC Business
Hudson and Oak's gross sales more than doubled in its second year of business.
Life Story: On her family’s farm in Abbotsford, Sarah Henderson grew up exploring the woods with her dogs and selling blueberries to farmers passing by on tractors. Henderson’s father is Indigenous; generations of systemic oppression, along with alcoholism on his side of the family and a history of mental illness on her mother’s, made for a home environment that was challenging at times. “It’s something I don’t talk about too often, but it’s important,” she says.
After earning a degree in marketing management from BCIT, Henderson moved to Alberta, where she worked as a government assistant by day and a server by night, saving up enough money to buy a condo back in her hometown. She began to express a love for home decor, which led to the launching of her first line of fibreglass planters on Etsy in 2018.
Bottom Line: Hudson and Oak’s gross sales more than doubled in its second year of business. In 2019, the company’s collaboration with designer Jillian Harris sold out twice, and its list of celebrity customers includes singer Michael Bublé and reality TV star Scott Disick.
During the pandemic, Henderson’s online sales have increased, and she’s offering virtual plant styling sessions and focusing on outdoor plant design. “My background is important, especially being First Nations,” she says. “You don’t have to live in the cycle of what your parents have donethe sky’s the limit.”